"I remember feeling, at drama school, that if you were male and working class you were a bit of a poet, a working-class hero, but if you were female you were just a bit gobby and a bit brassy and common."

Maxine, who grew up on a council estate, said many people still assumed that the broader the accent, the more working class a person was.

The actress, whose father was a lorry driver and security guard, said of preparing for her QC role in BBC drama Silk: "I had to soften my accent.

"They go, 'OK, so this character is from the North, but she went to university, Maxine, and has lived in London for 10 years.'

"So I went, 'OK, well I went to Rada and lived in London for 13 years' and they go, 'Yeah, but she's lost her accent a bit more than you have'... It's still rife. We're still obsessed with accent and class in this country."